Contents

The Chancel is apparently a bottomless pit, with four side rooms connected by bridges. One leads to the Nave, one to the Inner Sanctum, one to the machine that powers the Sanctum's protective shield, and one that leads to a room filled with statuettes, bookshelves, a blood-covered altar, and where Daniel respawns in case he gets hit by a Gatherer. The Chancel is lit by torches glowing with eerie blue-green flames.

At first, before Daniel figures out how to get into the Transept and Choir, it is the only other area accessible from the Nave and initially has few enemies. However, a single Servant Grunt will spawn in the distance upon entering the Chancel for the first time, wandering the walkway parallel to the entrance. Exercise caution, as it may turn at the intersection of the four paths and pursue Daniel as far back as the exit to the Nave, breaking down the door to the staircase in its path. The Chancel should be explored to collect supplies and notes while it is relatively safe, after finding the orb pieces in the other two areas. The Inner Sanctum is inaccessible, as an impenetrable barrier bars the way and will electrocute Daniel if he tries to force his way through. It is formed by the combined power of Daniel's stolen Orb that is currently guesting the Orb Chamber ahead and steam-powered machinery nearby. Daniel must first acquire Agrippa's broken Orb and repair it in the pedestal with a hemispherical depression on its top, and sabotage the generators if he hopes to proceed any further.

It is here that Daniel is later attacked by several Servants, and carried away to the Cells (not to be confused with the prison blocks from earlier in the game). At first, enemies are scarce, then Grunts and the Shadow show up when Daniel collects the Orb pieces, then Brutes take over after Daniel escapes from the Cells, with the added enemies also worsening the danger of falling into the chasm. The Chancel thus transforms over time from a relatively safe location to an extremely dangerous one. As with the rest of the castle later in the game, the Shadow completely consumes this area, its flesh not even hindered by the abyss. One of the branching paths collapses once the player obtains all pieces of the Orb, making the room with the altar inaccessible. The Shadow's fleshy residue forms in the intersection of the four paths that will often result in Daniel taking damage as he passes. Luckily the Guardian of the Orb appearing also tears down the solid metal gate that blocked access to the machinery, now Daniel can simply enter and jam up the cogwheels.

Going left at the intersection, to the room with the tar, a tinderbox can be found in the corner.

Down the stairs in the very same room - at the gate to the machinery that powers the lightning tunnel.

Taking a right at the intersection, you will find yourself in a small room with a strange altar further in. The tinderbox sits on a bookshelf to your right as you enter the room (Note: This tinderbox has to be picked up before you collect the orb pieces, as the path there will have fallen down into the pit when you return from the cells).

Following the path to the right as you get to the intersection, you end up in a strange room with an altar at the bottom. A container is located near the altar. (Note: This container has to be picked up before you collect the orb pieces, as the path there will have fallen down into the pit when you return from the cells).

The Chancel is one of the few places in the game where more than one Gatherer will spawn at once.

There is absolutely no way to circumvent the scripted event where the three Gatherers ambush Daniel. Even if the player completely evades them all, there are zones that will instantly reduce health to zero if you try to run to a different area - when this happens, the game will act as if Daniel was slashed by one of the Grunts, even if they were far away at the time.

The irony of the previous statement is there is a way to walk around the scripting by simply hugging the wall by jumping on the lower edging out. There is really no point in taking this action though, as the Inner Sanctum isn't accessible due to the fact that the machinery barred gate is still intact. Abusing the game's save and exit system to get passed the electric gate will also serve no purpose, as the Inner Sanctum is only reachable by the second Chancel map, "chancel_redux," after you have been captured in the Cells. You would be basically trying to move to an unloaded map.

In a flashback, Daniel describes the Chancel as "Like Orpheus descending into the underworld", provoking a surprised and uneasy response from Alexander. This might mean the pit is indeed bottomless and possibly otherworldly that inspired the myths of the land of the dead.

The reference to Orpheus also likely caused unease from Alexander because it was the case that Orpheus would descend to the underworld in order to make contact with his wife- Alexander's main goal in opening the portal is to return to his beloved. He seems to believe Daniel may have found out about this motive, and thought he was comparing Alexander to Orpheus himself.

In the Chancel, Alexander will be assaulting Daniel's mind, telling Daniel to blame himself after the murdering he did in Brennenburg.

The color of the torch flames is possibly due to copper salts.

There are actually two chancel maps - chancel and chancel_redux. Chancel is the map before Daniel gets captured by the gatherers and brought to the cells. The latter is the one Daniel visits after escaping the cells.

If one were to use a glitch to get across the lightning tunnel in the chancel map to enter the Inner Sanctum, the game will crash. This is because the game tries to transition you into a non-existant map.

The damage taken when jamming the cogwheels cannot be evaded, as it's a scripted event that will occur no matter how far away Daniel is from the machine.

The room where the altar is located contains numerous tablets with Uruk to Early Dynastic Mesopotamian cuneiform writing.

If Daniel would decide to create the orb in the redux map before breaking the machinery, a brute will spawn to investigate the destruction. However, if one were to break the machinery before mending the orb, they could completely avoid the encounter